Religious Liberty Accommodations Act

Protecting Freedom of Conscience from Government Discrimination Act.
Mississippi Legislature
An Act To Create The "protecting Freedom Of Conscience From Government Discrimination Act"; To Provide Certain Protections Regarding A Sincerely Held Religious Belief Or Moral Conviction For Persons, Religious Organizations And Private Associations; To Define A Discriminatory Action For Purposes Of This Act; To Provide That A Person May Assert A Violation Of This Act As A Claim Against The Government; To Provide Certain Remedies; To Require A Person Bringing A Claim Under This Act To Do So Not Later Than Two Years After The Discriminatory Action Was Taken; To Provide Certain Definitions; And For Related Purposes.
Citation	H.B. 1523
Enacted by	Mississippi House of Representatives
Date passed	February 19, 2016
Enacted by	Mississippi State Senate
Date passed	March 30, 2016
Date signed	April 5, 2016
Signed by	Governor Phil Bryant
Date effective	July 1, 2016; enjoined
Introduced by	Speaker Philip Gunn
Related legislation
Mississippi Student Religious Liberties Act of 2013; Mississippi Religious Freedom Restoration Act
Status: In force

The Religious Liberty Accommodations Act, also called the Protecting Freedom of Conscience from Government Discrimination Act or House Bill 1523, is a 2016 Mississippi law that protects the following beliefs: Marriage is or should be recognized as the union of one man and one woman, sexual relations are properly reserved to such a marriage, and male (man) or female (woman) refer to an individual's immutable biological sex as objectively determined by anatomy and genetics at time of birth.

It also states that the state government of Mississippi shall not take any discriminatory action against a religious organization when it comes to issuing marriages, employment (including state employees), sale, rental, housing, adoption, declines to participate in sex reassignment surgery, conversion therapy, or services that accommodate or facilitates marriages "based upon or in a manner consistent with a sincerely held religious belief or moral conviction."

This legislation was to come into effect from July 1, 2016, however on June 30 U.S. District Court Judge Carlton W. Reeves issued a preliminary injunction blocking the law. Three days before he had issued a permanent injunction requiring government officials to issue marriage licenses to same-sex couples regardless of the officials' religious beliefs.

On June 26, 2015, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in Obergefell v. Hodges that the denial of marriage rights to same-sex couples is unconstitutional, thus legalizing same-sex marriage in Mississippi.

On 31 March 2016, U.S. District Judge Daniel Porter Jordan III issued a preliminary injunction striking down Mississippi's ban on adoption rights for same-sex couples, declaring it unconstitutional.

Representatives Philip Gunn, William Tracy Arnold, C. Scott Bounds, Lester Carpenter, J. Andrew Gipson, William Shirley, Randy Boyd, and Dan Eubanks officially introduced House Bill 1523, titled "Protecting Freedom of Conscience from Government Discrimination Act".

...
Wikipedia